Nagi no Asukara episode 14: Time Skip

5 years after the catastrophe, Chisaki has learned to live on the surface with Tsumugu and his recently hospitalized grandfather while the now 14 year-old Miuna attends middle school with Sayu and has a little brother named Akari. The climate changes from before the time skip have progressed and causes big changes like covering the ground in saltflake snow and seeing the Tomoebi on the surface at night. This episode, everyone prepares themselves to see the phenomenon, but as it happens some big sea creature seems to appear underwater, and Hikari is brought back to the surface without having aged one bit.

Impression

Well, what a way to start a new arc!

The time skip was probably the best idea this show could ever have; not only did it allow for us to see a lot more than just the remaining people on land moving on from everything that happened, but it also allowed Hikari to come back pretty early within the arc without making last episode’s catastrophe seem like a walk in the park. I can finally kind of understand where this show will be going with its plot, and can only look forward to it.

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It seems like the idealistic/”we’ll be friends forever” feeling from the first arc is almost gone in its entirety. As I had guessed in an earlier post, the second half of the show should prove to be a lot more dramatic – Although I was still surprised with this episode’s lingering sadness. Even though Hikari has come back, I feel like he won’t be causing as much happiness as we would think; there is also the grandfather in the hospital problem, and Tsumugu’s/Miuna’s ignored feelings could probably cause trouble as well.

Since Hikari has stayed this young, I feel like it might be troublesome for Chisaki to have kept her feelings for him all this time. If she goes to him now, the only reward she’ll get is a night in jail. Miuna’s situation, however, seems to have immensely improved now that the age gap between her and Hikari has disappeared; the only problem with her story, is that Hikari will probably never have feelings of love for her. If only Miuna fell for someone else and Chisaki fell for Tsumugu, everything would be fine…

If that doesn’t happen, I might just cry forever for Tsumugu’s sake; this guy has surpassed even the friendzone stage, and entered the brother area. For the first time ever in the show, I feel like we got a glimpse of his true feelings, and they don’t seem to be going in the right direction; at least, for as long as Chisaki has feelings for Hikari, his wish to support her as much as he can will always stay unnoticed. It seems like he has dedicated even his career choice to her, in trying to figure out what happened to everyone else during the Ofunehiki ceremony. Soon, he’ll need to be a little more pushy, otherwise his feelings will go unnoticed until the end.

Sadly enough, I’m expecting this arc to include the grandfather’s death soon enough. Considering he’s already in the hospital, it pretty much has to happen; knowing this show, however, character development should also be a part of it, especially for Chisaki.

In the end, this second arc should prove to be terribly sad and terribly dramatic, but also terribly awesome and terribly full of character development. Expect Chisaki to change personalities once again, Hikari to try and become a mature person, Miuna to cry a lot over a heartbreak, and probably eventually to have Manaka and Kaname come back from the sea. As for me, well, you can expect to read more of my thoughts next week at the same time.

P.S.: The new opening is just as amazing as the first one. It is a lot more dramatic and less idealistic than the first, which follows the vibe of the show very well, and its art is as beautiful as it could be.